The Wednesday Club’s Comic Picks: Road to Knowhere

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This week’s episode of The Wednesday Club went into the far reaches of space for a look at the Marvel Cosmic characters and stories. Hosts Matt Key, Taliesin Jaffe, and Amy Dallen tackled the strange and complicated universe that takes Marvel’s heroes and villains off Earth and into the stars.

“[Marvel Cosmic] is not a company, it’s not a storyline, it’s a broad set of characters and story settings,” said Amy.

The Marvel Cosmic stories are basically any stories that don’t take place on Earth, explained Matt. “If you’re a big fan of the [Guardians of the Galaxy] movies and you love them, that’s Marvel Cosmic,” he said. “The Marvel Cosmic stuff is weird, which is why I love it so much. It’s weird, anything can happen.”

Thanos Quest is a two-part prequel to the events of The Infinity Gauntlet, explaining how Thanos obtained the Infinity Gems. Thanos comes from a race of Eternals, and he falls in love with Death after she resurrects him. He decides to gather the Gems to earn her favor. Along the way he encounters other cosmic beings like the Gardener and the Collector, and takes the stones forcefully from them.

“Thanos Quest is one of my favorite Marvel stories of all time,” Matt said. “This basically becomes the operating manual for the Marvel Cosmic universe from 1990 onward.”

This six-issue limited series was released in 1991 and became an instant classic. Thanos has his hands on the Infinity Gauntlet, a vessel for the six Infinity Gems, which gives him the ability to control time, space, power, reality, the mind, and the soul. It will take all of Marvel’s superheroes, along with their new ally Adam Warlock, to save the universe.

This cosmic crossover event in the mid-2000s brought Annihilus from the Negative Zone to wage war on the Marvel universe. The Nova Corps is decimated, and it’s up to Nova and Drax the Destroyer to help save the galaxy.

“It’s such a good introduction to the Nova Corps,” Taliesin said. “It’s the first iteration of our modern Guardians.”

This collection of the 2008 Guardians of the Galaxy 12-issue series features a team familiar to fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon, Drax the Destroyer, Groot, Gamora, Adam Warlock, Mantis, Quasar, and Cosmo the space dog make up the team in this memorable run.

Silver Surfer #11 is unlike any other comic published in recent years. The Silver Surfer and his Doctor Who-like companion are trapped in a time loop, illustrated in a moebius strip that requires the reader to turn the book to get the whole story.

“You keep having to rotate the book and follow the paths in the circular story,” said Amy. “It’s one of my favorite things from the past couple of years.”